INDIA-NEPAL RELATIONS AT A NEW LOW
now and that, no doubt, due to the chauvinistic attitude and measures of the current Nepali government led by K.P. Sharma Oli. It is very sad that entire Nepal Parliament stood behind this pervert PM as against India though for the last about 200 years the current control and arrangements, to say the least, are being followed in the Limpiyadhura- Kalapani-Lipulekh triangular sector. An insightful write-up by Naresh Koirala in The Khatmandu Post (4 June 2020) itself has refuted the bellicose statements/measures of the Nepalese PM and it may be sufficient to quote some salient portions of the same: “Nepal’s publication of a new map showing the Limpiyadhura-Kalapani-Lipulekh area within its territorial boundary has raised passions here and across the border in India. The area in question, a 370-square-kilometre strip located at the north-western corner of the country, has been under Indian administration for a long time. But Nepal argues that, under the terms of the 1815 Sugauli Treaty, it is her land and should be returned. It looks like the newly unveiled map will bring India to the negotiating table.” “The territorial boundary of modern Nepal was defined by the Sugauli Treaty signed with the British East India Company in 1815. It said that the course of the Kali River, called the Mahakali downstream, marked Nepal’s western boundary which is the subject of the current row. …… The Mahakali has two tributaries – one starting at Lipukekh and the other at Limpiyadhura. The treaty did not specify which of these two tributaries would be considered the Kali for the purpose of delineating the boundary. India says the Kali starts at Lipulekh, and Nepal says Limpiyadhura is the river's source.” “In the early 1960s, King Mahendra gave consent to Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to continue the use of the Lipulekh-Kalapani area, according to the then Home Minister Biswabandhu Thapa. In 1961, Mahendra signed a boundary treaty with China, which says, ‘The boundary line starts from the point where the watershed between the Kali River and the Tinkar River meet the watershed between the tributaries of the Mapchu (Karnali) River on the one hand and the Tinkar River on the other hand’. This treaty makes Tinkar, about 10 kilometres south of Lipulekh – the tri-junction where the China-India-Nepal borders meet – and supports India’s current position.” Further, the UN map of Nepal, the CIA facts book map, and the various maps by Nepal itself till now, do not claim the triangular portion and China entered into an agreement with India in 2015 for opening a trading post at Lipulekh, in effect recognizing the trijunction as within Indian jurisdiction. A shorter, more convenient route to a most sacred pilgrimage site, Manasarovar Lake, lies through Lipulekh, to facilitate which India has built a new road up to Lipulekh recently, which raked up the entire controversy now. However, it seems there is strong opposition to Oli in the ruling Nepal Communist Party itself and the faction led by Prachanda, who stood foremost in the militant struggle against monarchy and for achievement of democracy in Nepal, is bitterly opposed to the fanatic and perverse policies and actions of Oli, especially his rabid anti-Indian stance. Hope the Nepal Communist Party will oust Oli and install a saner, liberal leadership in that government, which then can mend relations with India for the better. §§§
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